BY JOHN COULTER, Irish political journalist
ANY serious trouble at this Sunday’s proposed ‘Home Coming’ British army parade and republican counter demonstrations in Belfast city centre could send the North back to the brink of civil war.
Political temperatures are rising rapidly in the two religious communities ahead of Sunday 2 November’s parade by the Royal Irish Regiment, which has completed tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Anti-war graffiti has already been daubed on walls in nationalist part of Belfast, with counter demos planned by both Sinn Fein representing mainstream republicanism, and by the dissident republican pressure group, Eirigi.
Other dissident groups, such as the Irish Republican Socialist Party, the political wing of the INLA, and the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, the political mouthpiece of the Real IRA are also reported to be planning protests.
The police will need to ensure an effective buffer zone between the troops, their families and supporters and republicans, otherwise serious rioting on a scale not seen since the Drumcree Orange parade rioting of the late 1990s could erupt.
And with the DUP/Sinn Fein-run power-sharing Executive at Stormont not having met for over four months, any Sunday violence would deepen the political crisis still further.
It could put severe pressure on British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to rush through legislation at Westminster to suspend the paralysed Northern Assembly, axe Stormont altogether and stage new Assembly elections.
The existence of dissident republican counter demos reinforces a warning from security forces chiefs that dissident terror groups, such as the Real and Continuity IRAs, are planning to use the increase in political tensions to launch an attack on the police.
PSNI chief constable Hugh Orde has already warned that such dissidents want to kill his officers.
Such a murder of a police officer – especially at a Home Coming parade – would place almost unbearable pressure on the power-sharing institutions at Stormont.
That could see a political copy cat situation as existed in March 1972 when the then original Unionist-controlled Stormont Parliament was axed by Tory PM Ted Heath because of the rapidly deteriorating security situation in the North.
Sinn Fein has also pointed to the comments of a leading British Army chaplain who has questioned the need for a parade.
The main problem for republicans is the specific history of the Royal Irish Regiment. A forerunner of the RIR was the Ulster Defence Regiment, an almost exclusively Protestant section of the British Army in the North.
Since the paramilitary ceasefires of 1994, there have been considerable allegations of collusion between Northern security forces and loyalist death squads. A small number of people with UDR links have been charged over the years with loyalist terrorist offences.
During the Troubles, dozens of part-time and full-time UDR soldiers, as well as former members of the Regiment, were murdered or maimed when either on duty or off duty by republican death squads from the IRA and INLA.
The forerunner of the UDR was the virtually exclusively Protestant B Specials militia of the then police force, the RUC. The B Specials were to the fore in forcing the original IRA to call a ceasefire to its border campaign in 1962 – seven years before the current Provisional IRA was formed.
In republican eyes, the B Specials, UDR and RIR can be compared to the hated Black and Tans Army unit which terrorised many Southern nationalists during the War of Independence with Britain from 1919 to 1921.
For Unionists, the protest campaigns – both mainstream and dissident – by republicans against the Home Coming parades make a mockery of republican claims to want equality for all Northern citizens.
However, Sinn Féin MLA’s Alex Maskey – a former Belfast Lord Mayor – and Jennifer McCann speaking at the launch of the poster and billboard campaign to highlight the party’s protest march and rally against the 2 November parade organised by the British Ministry of Defence have said victims of British state violence have been ignored.
Family members of victims of British state murder and collusion and victims groups attended the launch at the Ballymurphy massacre mural at the corner of the Whiterock and Springfield Roads in west Belfast.
Mr Maskey said: ‘The families whose loved ones were killed and injured by the British Army here in Ireland have been ignored in the debate about this MoD parade.
‘Hundreds of families who have lost loved ones directly or through collusion between the British Army and Loyalists still have many unanswered questions about British Government policy here.
‘There have been hundreds of thousands of people killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and undoubtedly many families there will be asking exactly the same questions.
‘The evidence of collusion and British state murder is colossal. The attempt to glorify British crown forces in the centre of Belfast is an affront to victims across this island. It adds insult to injury that one of the British regiments involved is implicated in the worst single massacre of the conflict in Ireland: the Dublin/Monaghan bombings.
‘Thousands have demonstrated against Britain’s dirty wars elsewhere, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan. What Britain has done in Ireland is wrong. The same wrong is being done in Iraq and Afghanistan.’
Ms McCann, West Belfast MLA, said: ‘Our rally is to demand the Truth about Britain’s Dirty War in Ireland. It will be a peaceful and dignified event and include a silent, solemn protest. This is a proportionate and legitimate response to the decision by the British MoD to organise a parade to honour the British army.
‘Plans for our rally and protest have been very carefully prepared. In addition to making arrangements for the marshalling of the event, the organisers have had discussions with victims groups and bereaved families; the Catholic Church; members of the loyalist community; and the PSNI. Those engagements will continue.’
She has also called on the MoD to take heed of the comments of the RIR chaplain, Reverend David Latimer, that a British army parade in Belfast city centre is not a good idea.
Reverend Latimer said publicly that he would prefer ‘one centrally organised religious service of thanksgiving’ rather than ‘rushing into a fanfare of parades and celebration’.
Ms McCann emphasised: ‘The British Defence Minister, John Hutton, and the British Secretary of State, Shaun Woodward, should pay attention to what Reverend Latimer has said. As the RIR chaplain, he has expressed his own scepticism about plans for a military march. To his credit, Reverend Latimer clearly realises the divisiveness that the British MoD plans are causing.
‘Council funding was sought for a civic reception which split Belfast City Council down the middle. After that, the British MoD applied to the Parades Commission and falsely claimed that the Council was organising the march.
‘In response, the Council issued a statement making clear : “The parade has been wholly organised by the MoD and the council’s only role is to host a reception after the parade, as approved at last month’s council meeting”.’ (10th October 08)
Ms McCann continued: ‘Reverend Latimer’s call for a service corresponds with the civic reception and service which is now scheduled to go ahead with Council funding. A similar event was also held recently at St Anne’s Cathedral for the RUC George Cross Foundation. That was a dignified and non-contentious service.
‘In contrast, the British MoD plans will turn Belfast city centre into a military showground for the British Army with three different regiments; a saluting stand; a military band; and fighter jets flying overhead. The British Ministry of Defence is acting irresponsibly.
‘This is the second largest city in Ireland. Either the British MoD has total disregard for the victims of British State violence here or their plans are designed to maximise division,’ said Ms McCann.
